EGT to build two shuttle train-loading facilities in Montana

PORTLAND, OREGON, U.S. — EGT, LLC, a joint venture between Bunge North America, ITOCHU and STX Pan Ocean, announced it is building two high capacity shuttle train loaders in Montana. The facilities to be built in Chester and Kintyre Flats will ensure that EGT can efficiently ship wheat from a key growing region to the company's export grain terminal currently under construction in Longview, Washington.

"Montana consistently supplies high-quality wheat, particularly hard red winter, northern spring and dark northern spring wheat to export markets that are important to EGT," said Larry Clarke, president and CEO, EGT, LLC. "These state-of-the-art facilities will be built on the BNSF mainline, ensuring efficient movement along the value chain from our farmer customers in Montana to vessels and finally to the end consumer."

Each high-speed shuttle loader is capable of loading 110-car unit train in under 10 hours. The facilities are also designed to provide farmers with fast weighing, grading and dumping, offering best-in-class cycle times. In addition, the facilities will be able to store about 800,000 bushels apiece.

Construction is expected to be complete by fall of 2011. Once operational, the facilities will each employ four to six people.

The EGT export facility in Longview is also expected to be operational in fall 2011. As the first export terminal to be built in the United States in more than two decades, the EGT facility will have an annual capacity of 8 million tonnes. It will help meet the growing demand for grain, oilseeds, meals and DDGS in export markets. Wheat is expected to make up about a quarter of the grain shipped through the EGT facility.